Homemade Ravioli

My first try making homemade ravioli. It turned out really well!

Filled with cheese, mushrooms, and spinach.

Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

I felt like trying something totally new today, and it had to be coffee cake after seeing this recipe from Joy of Baking: Blackberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake. Since I couldn't find blackberries at the farmer's market today, I used raspberries in their place and it was really good!

Four-Cheese Lasagna

I used a 10.5 x 14.5 x 2 inches rectangular baking dish, but this recipe would work well reduced if you have a smaller dish.


For the first time ever, I put all my ingredients together before I started cooking!

The Recipe:
64 Ounces of Pasta Sauce
14 - 16 Uncooked Lasagna Noodles
2 - 3 Baby Bella Mushrooms, Thinly Sliced
30 Ounces of Ricotta Cheese
4 Tablespoons of Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
2 Tablespoons of Shredded Romano Cheese
16 Ounces of Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
2 Tablespoons of Fresh, Chopped Spinach
1.5 Tablespoons of Fresh, Chopped Basil
4 Tablespoons of dried Parsley Flakes (or 1/2 Cup of Fresh, Chopped Parsley)
1 Teaspoon of Garlic Powder
Fake Ground Beef (optional; I used Quorn brand grounds)


This was my first time experimenting with fake ground beef. I used a little over 1/3 of this package.


This first step is to fill the bottom of your baking dish with 2 & 2/3 cups of the pasta sauce. Spread the sauce evenly over the bottom.


Top with 7-8 noodles, making sure to press the lasagna into the sauce.


The next step is to made the cheese mixture. Combine all the ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, parsley, basil, spinach, and garlic powder in a bowl. Mix well.


Spread only half of the cheese mixture over the noodles. This part is a bit difficult to do without messing up the noodles because the mixture is thick. Try to cover every bit of the noodles though and spread evenly.


The ground fake meat came out in a big lump. It doesn't need to be cooked first, only broken up into smaller crumbles.


I didn't know if I would like it or not (and you may not either) so I only spread it over half the dish.


Cover evenly with half the mozzarella cheese.


Now add another 2 & 2/3 cups of pasta sauce over the mozzarella cheese. Top with the sliced mushrooms.


Add another 7-8 uncooked lasagna noodles, again making sure to press the noodles into the sauce.


Find the other half of your ricotta cheese mixture (I mixed two batches separately)


and spread over the noodles like last time.


Add the rest of the pasta sauces (another 2 & 2/3 cups of sauce) over the cheese mixture.


Top with the rest of the mozzarella cheese.


Heat uncovered for 40-45 minutes at 350˚. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before cutting.


I ended up thinking that the fake ground beef was a great addition to the recipe although I really liked both sides. Since Romano cheese doesn't melt the same way mozzarella does, it gave the cheese-only side a chewier texture than traditional lasagna that completely made up for the lack of fake meat. I actually thought this tasted even better the next day. It made great leftovers for the week!

Goat Cheese Sandwich (Really, really good)

When I went to NYC with my mom last month, we found a wonderful cafe near our hotel. I was so good that we went back three times. She shared a sandwich with me the night we arrived that I loved so much, I've been wanting to recreate it since I got back. Tonight I finally did! This is really a perfect college student sandwich: easy, quick, and requires no cooking.

Ingredients:
*Goat Cheese
*Sun-Dried Tomatoes
*Baby Spring Mix (or your favorite mix of greens)
*French Baguette


The artisan bread at Target was perfect for this sandwich if you don't want to make your own (and I didn't)


The organic baby spring mix was so much better than I expected. I didn't want to spend extra on pre-washed, pre-cut lettuce, but there's so much variety (about 15 ingredients) and so delicious.


Spread the goat cheese on the bread, cut up the sun-dried tomatoes, add the greens, and it's done!

Blueberry-Banana Bread

After reading the blueberry banana bread recipe at Fat-Free Vegan (http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/06/blueberry-banana-bread.html) I had to try it. I didn't have any rotten bananas, so the difficult part was buying delicious bananas and waiting for them to start getting rotten (but not too rotten, of course!) I also didn't have any vanilla soy milk or agave nectar on hand, but I usually have plenty of blueberries around.



The recipe:
3 large over-ripe bananas
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup vanilla soymilk
1/2 cup agave nectar
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries (make sure you remove all the stems and mushy berries)

The first part is to add half of the lemon juice to the vanilla soy milk and wait until it curdles. Actually that sounded a bit gross as I had no idea soy milk could curdle. I'm not even sure I did it correctly (and the first time, I just added all of the lemon juice by accident) but it turned out well so I'm not sure how much it matters!


What my possibly curdled soy milk looked like

Next, I put my three browning bananas in a large bowl and mushed them as well as I could. The first time I tried this recipe, I didn't mash them before adding the other ingredients and I was never really able to reduce the chunkiness of the bananas. (I ended up getting out my hand mixer and making a big mess)


After learning my banana-mushing lesson! (Mashed bananas)
Trying a Recipe I Found at Fat-Free Vegan!


I didn't feel like mixing the wet and dry ingredients in a separate bowl and making a big mess, so I threw everything in together and mixed well.


I did the wet ingredients first


Then the dry ingredients, and finally the blueberries to fold in

Before pouring the batter into the loaf pan, I coated it with olive oil and then flour.

Ready for the oven!

Preheat oven to 350˚ and cook for 55 minutes. Turn down to 250˚ and cook for another 10 minutes.

The bread came out with no problem!

So far, I have made this twice (which used up all of my agave nectar!), but next time I'll see if chopped strawberries might be an improvement over the blueberries.

New York-Style Cheesecake

Yes really, I am updating this blog! I've been doing a lot of baking for Mother's Day weekend, but his is the first time I've ever made cheesecake. With flour-covered fingers, I photographed the process to make it easier to follow. There are two parts: the crust and the filling. Let's start with the crust because it needs to chill before the filling is added. Note: several hours before starting, I left three packages of 8 ounce regular cream cheese (I have a friend that swears by the Philadelphia brand) and one stick of unsalted butter out to soften.

You may want to melt the unsalted butter if it isn't soft enough. I put mine in the microwave for about 15 seconds to save myself some difficulty of mixing it in. Other than that, the crust is extremely easy to prepare and only consists of three ingredients: 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs, 2 tablespoons of granulated white sugar, and your one stick of unsalted butter. Wisk the dry ingredients together, then add your melted butter.


Before melting the butter


and after!



That's it! The crust is done! Refrigerate to allow butter to cool while preparing the filling. Using your mixing bowl, empty the three packages (or somehow your 24 ounces of cream cheese), then add one tablespoon of all-purpose flour and one cup of granulated sugar.


These are three squishy sticks of cheese with no sugar or flour yet

I used my stand mixer again but this time with the wire wisk. My fear was that everything would get stuck inside the wisk and be a horrible disaster.



That is exactly what happened (at first)! It worked out wonderfully though, because as the stand mixer worked its culinary magic, it softened nicely and became very fluffy.



Next add one teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and one tablespoon of heavy whipping cream. I just happened to have the cream handy from making so much homemade vanilla ice cream for the kids this semester. It's great to have another use for that stuff!

The next step is to beat in four whole eggs, one a time, until fully incorporated. If using an electric mixer, I'd suggest mixing for about 30 seconds each. Afterward, the mixture became very liquidy.



Pour the filling into your chilled crust and preheat your oven to 350˚



Bake at 350˚ for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 250˚ and continue baking for an additional 60 to 70 minutes. When it is done, the center will be wiggly but the edges should be firm.



Allow to cool at room temperature, then refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Since I didn't allow mine to cool first, or remove my cake from the spring form pan side before putting it in the fridge, there is a good chance it will crack (the dreaded cheesecake dilemma) but I'll keep you updated on the taste when it's ready tomorrow!

Update: The cheesecake is perfect! It didn't crack at all and tastes completely delicious, although I would want to try a more exciting flavor next time.


Perfect!


Maybe raspberry cheesecake next?

Fruit Tarts!

I have been obsessed with fruit tarts for awhile. I have been making them several times a week, nearly every other day, for the last month. When I found out about the fruit tart challenge from foodbeam.com, I thought that it would be the perfect thing to push me to be more innovative! As a college physicist, I am both cheap and like to take short cuts. My favorite fruit tarts involve blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, mangoes, (and kiwi, which I've since discovered I'm allergic to) so I needed something I would be able to eat but also cheap to buy in the winter. Apples! The only problem is that the texture of apples are much too hard, so I came up with the solution to bake them first. The recipe is in three parts: the shell, the filling, and the topping.

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For the shell, you will need:

*1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature (I usually use organic)
*1/4 cup of granulated white sugar
*1 egg, beaten
*1/8 teaspoon salt
*1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour (for those with gluten or wheat allergies, I tried substituting this with the Red Barron wheat-free, gluten-free all purpose flour, but the shell completely crumbled when I removed it from the pan)

I suggest using a stand mixer to mix the dough if you have one available, although it might contribute to shell shrinkage if you over mix. It took about 10 minutes to form the dough using my KitchenAid. For those using a stand mixer, I used the lowest setting for all steps and used only the flat beater attachment.

First beat the butter with the sugar until creamy, being careful to not over beat. Add the egg and mix for a few more minutes. Finally add the salt and flour and mix until a dough forms.

Dough Takes Awhile to Mix

Ready to Refrigerate!

This step takes awhile. If you're using a stand mixer, the dough will lump around the flat beater when it's finished. Form the dough into a disk, surround it in plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for about 20 minutes. (A better idea to prevent shell shrinkage is to store your flour and sugar in the freezer. Then you can skip the step of putting the dough in the fridge to cool; using the dough right away in this way allows for nearly perfect shells!)

When you are rolling the dough, it's easiest to fold it back over your rolling pin to lift gently into the tart pan. Rather than pushing the dough into the corners, I've had better success reducing shell shrinkage by pushing dough into the corners before pressing onto the sides. Mini tart shells can be more difficult to make well because of this problem, and during some of the trials, the sides completely disappeared! Don't worry though, because tart cookies (the shells with no sides) are still cute and extremely tasty. To get a perfect edge along the top, take the rolling pin to roll across the top edge of the pan. The excess dough will come right off! If you don't have pie weights, poke holes throughout the bottom of your shell with a fork. (This is the method I choose.) Bake at 375 degrees for 11-12 minutes. Despite the ventilation holes at the bottom, some shells will forms a bubble on the bottom when they come out of the oven. Push down on them for a few seconds with a fork while they are still warm and it will flatten nicely. Allow to cool on a flat surface.

Uncooked Shells

Cooked Tartlette Shells

Cooked 9 inch Shell

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For the filling, you will need:

*3 large egg yolks
*1/4 cup granulated white sugar
*1 1/4 cups milk (I usually use organic fat-free milk)
*1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (using pure makes a huge difference over the imitation)
*1/8 cup all purpose flour
*2 tablespoons corn starch

Heat the milk and vanilla on your stove top over medium heat. Separate three eggs to obtain just the yolk. Don't worry, getting a bit of egg white into the cream don't make any noticeable difference. My method for separation is to crack an egg into a bowl, then using a large metal spoon, pick up the yolk and let gravity pull the egg whites away. Easy Peasy!

While allowing the milk mixture to warm up, mix the egg yolks with the sugar in a large bowl (I used the metal mixing bowl from the KitchenAid). I have found this step to be easiest when using a wooden spoon, although any type will work.



You cannot allow the egg to sit for too long or it'll begin to form pieces of egg, although if it happens, you can strain out those pieces later. Add the flour and corn starch to the egg mixture and mix well. At this point, you will have a thick paste. Next, bring the milk to a boil while stirring, then remove from heat immediately. Pour the milk into the bowl containing your egg mixture and mix well.



When that's completed (should not take long), put the mixture back into your sauce pan and heat up until again boiling. You will begin to see lumps form, this is normal. Your cream is thickening up! Once the cream is boiling, remove from heat, and transfer to a bowl. Cover the top with plastic wrap, pressing lightly onto the surface of the cream to prevent a skin from forming. Place in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes.

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For the topping, you will need:

*4-6 pink lady apples
*cinnamon (optional)
*milk chocolate
*rose leaves

This is the fun part! I love decorating the top with fruit. Since apples are really too crunchy, I thinly sliced them and baked them on a cookie tray for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. While those were cooling, I washed rose leaves and allowed them to dry.

Thinner Slices Make Fruit Arrangement Easier

Place milk chocolate chips/pieces in a bowl and heat over boiling water or place in the microwave. This time I opted to place them in a microwave because it was faster and easier. I melted them for about 30 seconds on high, mixed the chips with a fork, and then microwaved them for another 30 seconds. Using a pastry brush, brush the chocolate onto the back of the rose leaves. (A slightly thick layer of chocolate is helpful to prevent the chocolate from breaking when your remove the original leaves.)


Remove the Leaves Slowly

Don't Remove Leaves Too Soon! (Like the Three On the Right)
When you are finished, place the leaves in the fridge for 10-20 minutes before peeling the leaves off the chocolate. I discovered that it's best to not reuse the leaves, as they begin to tear and become too fragile after the first use.

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Now you can assemble the tart! Spread the filling into the shell (or shells if you chose to use mini-shell pans as I did this time).

Shell Filled with Cream

Place the apple slices over the filling, completely covering the cream.


Filled, Unglazed Tart

If you want to glaze the fruit and shell for a shiny look, add a spoonful of apricot jelly and a bit a water to a small sauce pan, and heat until liquid. Using a pastry brush, cover the top and sides of the tart.

When you are done, add a chocolate leaf or two! If you aren't using chocolate leaves, cinnamon might be a wonderful touch in it's place.


Finished Tarts!



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Some of our other delicious variations:

Blueberries and Blackberries

Strawberries and a Blackberry

Blueberries and Blackberries

Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries

Kiwi, Blueberries, Blackberries

Mango, Strawberries, Blueberries

Mango, Raspberries, Blueberries, Blackberries
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My Special Helper, Ginger!




If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions feel free to leave a comment!